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Hi didn't say so. It's just an miscellaneous note

Multi-monitor mode has come a LONG way in the very recent past. So it's a bit buggy still, and not all drivers (I'm looking at you nVidia and AMD/ATI) support the coolness of xrandr. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it) I have a nVidia card, and it has it's own Multi-monitor goodness that works quite well and is easy to set up. Compiz, for what it's worth, is still very picky on multi-monitor set ups.

I have an intel card and have had a hell of a time trying to get xrand to play nice with my dual monitor set up.

I have a medion akoya mini and I want to clone the laptop to an external monitor, so that they both show the same content at different resolutions, but I have been unable to get it to work.

The only way it work is if I bring the resolution on the laptop and external monitor down to 800x600. Instead, what i want is to have the internal laptop use its native 1024x600 resolution and the external monitor use its 1680x1024 resolution. is this possible and does anybody know how to get it to work?

Don't get me wrong I think Ubuntu is a great OS. That why its my main OS, I'd consider myself a bit of a fanboy – but not a completely uncritical one, and yes multi screen support and changing screen resolution using the graphical tools has improved, however, if you go to ubuntuforums and search for resolution you will find 250 entries obviously this is not perfect and needs improving.

Right, so if "mom and pop" don't use it, then it's not really a problem which needs fixing...

Right now, "mom and pop" for the most part don't use Linux, so lets just freeze the code and not progress further.

Not really the point.

The point would be not so much that "mom and pop" don't use dual monitors, but rather the point is that "mom and pop" wouldn't expect to set up an OS to deal with a dual monitor system.

If "mom and pop" want a dual monitor system, they buy from the IT store such a system already set up for them. Windows or Mac doesn't matter.

It shouldn't matter for Linux either. It is NOT valid to reach a conclusion that Linux isn't ready for "mom and pop" becuase it is hard for them to set up a dual monitor system ... it would be hard for them to do that for any OS, and for any dual-monitor solution that "mom and pop" would need to buy they would only consider one where it was already set up for them in advance.

So this simply isn't an issue for Linux. Compare apples with apples ... compare a Linux system pre-installed with OSX pre-installed or Vista pre-installed. The Linux system in that scenario is easily as suitable and as easy for mom and pop to use as either of the others.

Edited 2008-11-17 05:36 UTC

Gone Fishing writes...

Getting two monitors to work properly at the right resolution can be a real pain and something that regularly crops up on ubuntuforums.org an area that still needs some attention.

Ok, and since when do Mom and Pops mess around with dual monitor setups? :-) "

you may have noticed over the years just how much more mom & pop do with their computers now compared to a few years ago.

It seems that the more features linux gets and the easier it is to use, the longer the list of things that the "average" user STILL needs before linux is a possibility for them.

The real fact is, that linux has been fine for the average user (read: web/email) for years, but whether they would be as familiar with it as with windows/mac is a completely different story, and depends on many other factors.

Anyone can use linux nowadays, but they may not be as productive with it as with windows/mac. There is a difference.

Your argument does not really hold as long as you say "windows/mac". Mac is as unfamiliar for the vast majority of people as Linux is. Easy to learn? Possibly, but so is Linux nowadays (yeah, it can get creepy at times, but then most would agree that XP is often a real bitch).

As for "more productive", these should also count:

* media players without the restrictions imposed by iTunes or WMP.

* no dealing with malware and progressive system rot.

* centralized software repository with immediate access to thousands of (free) apps.

* free automatic updates to the latest version of all the software you use, twice a year.

* no shitware preinstalled. My previous laptop felt like a beggar lived inside, always asking for money!

And on, and on, and on. Yeah, it is not perfect, and where it fails it might do so horribly. But it is getting better by leaps and bounds. What it might be missing is in a simple way to publish commercial proprietary apps: truly some pieces are missing which are available for Windows, but that can also be said of the OSX ecosystem.

Both my mom and my pop have jobs that involve them plugging their laptops into projectors to give presentations from time to time. That's a dual monitor setup and a very common one at that.